Growing your own veg

Old Boar · May 22, 2017

I have 3 upright freezers that were part of the pig production line, with glass doors. I have put them on their backs and filled them with polystyrene (old boxes used to hold meat) broken into chunks, covered that with lots of quite well rotted pig muck, then a layer of soil and a layer of compost. I started a lot of seeds in them, using the glass door as a cloche. Everything germinated fast, and the doors are now slotted down the back and they are planted up with courgettes, dill, sweet peas and various flowers. Noticed sweet peas were in bud today!
May be worth looking around for the same - I dont have to bend to weed, they seem slug free so far too....

KMA · May 23, 2017

Funny how things work out, I just wanted to fill the 1st raised bed and realised didn't have enough topsoil to hand to fill 3 I want to build this year so packed in the old hay bales on their edge to allow the water to penetrate better and covered with around 6" of topsoil. Not a standard procedure for a hotbed which seems to involve a lot of mixing and repeated digging over

feck that, bales it is

hoping to have bed 2 finished this week, big hold up is the drying time between scrubbing and treating the boards

by the time I've topped off bed 2 I should have cleared almost enough room to start bed 3.

Thanks to Nell's alertness to possibilities I now have 20ton of topsoil from a near neighbour, 100 bales of haylage to work with, not to mention the sheepshit from son's sheep quietly rotting down at his place but I may have a fight for that.

JohnGalway · Jun 1, 2017

Blight warning issued here today, guess I'll be doing my first spray later on

KMA · Jun 1, 2017

Worrying

1. Don't think it'll be that long until the first the first earlies are ready to start lifting maybe by mid June

2. Bed 1 has settled down to the high 20s, gave it a good weeding and topping up yesterday (it had sunk about 3")

3. Just a bit more levelling to do before I put Bed 3 together

4. Bed 2 is sitting around 28C at the moment, almost all the onions and quite a few of the shallots are up through already which is surprising as I thought a lot were duds when I put them in. The caulis and carrots are under the fleece.

JohnGalway · Jun 4, 2017

Earthed up the first earlies this morning

Old McDonald · Jun 5, 2017

JohnGalway said:
Earthed up the first earlies this morning

View attachment 530398

I see your straight lines are about as good as mine. I always reckon the plants do not know they are not planted straight so it does not matter.

KMA · Jun 5, 2017

Think I'd rather paddle in my swamp than dodge round JohnGallway's bedrock

.

The drains are starting to have an effect, think it must take a bit of time for the water to create routes to the drains.

Bed 3 is almost finished just 1 more bale top it out with soil. Cunning plan is a row of leeks and the rest in roots.

JohnGalway · Jun 6, 2017

Old McDonald said:
I see your straight lines are about as good as mine. I always reckon the plants do not know they are not planted straight so it does not matter.

Yeah, I didn't actually notice that doing the job but my better half pointed it out on the photo. As long as what's below ground turns out good they can grow any way they please.

New Puritan · Jun 6, 2017

Old McDonald said:
I see your straight lines are about as good as mine. I always reckon the plants do not know they are not planted straight so it does not matter.

@JohnGalway - there's critics everywhere! My explanation would be that I'd planted them straight, but the potatoes have sent out wriggly shoots. Maybe they encountered a stone or something on the way up?

JohnGalway · Jun 6, 2017

New Puritan said:
@JohnGalway - there's critics everywhere! My explanation would be that I'd planted them straight, but the potatoes have sent out wriggly shoots. Maybe they encountered a stone or something on the way up?

Well, I did plant them straight, as I used a marked plank to measure the planting distances. There are some small stones, but nothing major. Anyway, I'm not bothered which way they want to grow, they can come out the sides if they please, just as long as I have some tasty spuds

I am always function over form.

New Puritan · Jun 6, 2017

Ha - I agree. But where would the fun be if we couldn't take the pee on TFF? It's much more fun than doing my tax return, which is what I'm meant to be doing.

JohnGalway · Jun 6, 2017

New Puritan said:
Ha - I agree. But where would the fun be if we couldn't take the pee on TFF? It's much more fun than doing my tax return, which is what I'm meant to be doing.

As a sign I once happened upon read "Don't steal, the Government hates competition".

KMA · Jun 6, 2017

JohnGalway said:
Well, I did plant them straight, as I used a marked plank to measure the planting distances. There are some small stones, but nothing major. Anyway, I'm not bothered which way they want to grow, they can come out the sides if they please, just as long as I have some tasty spuds I am always function over form.

Ah 'Bauhaus' growing

Got my very first one of these today, no idea what to do with it :scratchhead:

this is the plant I thought the cats had killed

Netherfield · Jun 6, 2017

KMA said:
Ah 'Bauhaus' growing

Got my very first one of these today, no idea what to do with it this is the plant I thought the cats had killedView attachment 531106

Would it be rude to say stuff it.

JohnGalway · Jun 6, 2017

KMA said:
Ah 'Bauhaus' growing
View attachment 531106

Enlighten me?

KMA · Jun 6, 2017

Bauhaus is an early 20th century arts movement where function determines form

Old McDonald · Jun 6, 2017

KMA said:
Ah 'Bauhaus' growing

Got my very first one of these today, no idea what to do with it this is the plant I thought the cats had killedView attachment 531106

I do believe that is a male flower. You can eat the flower. Female flowers have a slight bulge immediately behind the flower head even before they are fertilised. It is normal for the male flowers to appear a day or two before any of the females on most, if not all, cucurbits.

The fruits are OK when very small if fried (in astir-fry is quite good) or boiled as a vegetable. When they become big I think the only reasonable way is to turn them into Picalilli.

KMA · Jun 6, 2017

Interesting, there are a lot of other buds (some are starting to develop) but this one is a lot earlier. If the two later plants are as productive as this one looks to be I'm going to be pretty sick of courgettes by the end of the summer, the plan is to harvest them as they reach 4-5", going to be an interesting experiment anyway.

Netherfield · Jun 7, 2017

Sharpes have put some growth on now, and some sign of flowers showing.

22nd of May and 7th June.
Though the wind yesterday battered them a little.

JohnGalway · Jun 7, 2017

Earthed up maincrop this evening

Growing your own veg

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